1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a contact and a connector with contacts in which contacts are press-fitted in terminal-press-fitting holes of a housing from a rear side, respectively, and electric contact parts (parts to be slid on and contact with terminals of a mating connector) provided at a leading end side of the contacts are inserted and aligned in terminal-alignment grooves on a surface of a thin-plate insulator that is projected integrally with a front portion of the housing.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of this type of the connector, an HDMI connector described in JP2008-270179A is known, for example.
FIG. 5 shows an external appearance of a connector that is similar to the connector described in JP2008-270179A. A connector 1 includes a housing 2 that is integrally molded with an insulating resin, and contacts 10 that are aligned in two stages of an upper stage and a lower stage.
Each contact 10 is press-fitted from a rear side in a terminal-press-fitting hole 3 that is formed in the housing 2. Each electric contact part 15 provided at a leading end side of the contact 10 is inserted and aligned in a terminal-alignment groove 5 on upper and lower surfaces (a surface) of a thin-plate insulator 4 that is projected integrally with a front portion of the housing 2. Each of the terminal-press-fitting holes 3 and the terminal-alignment grooves 5 are communicated with each other as a straight way. The terminal-press-fitting hole 3 is formed in a rectangle in cross-section and the terminal-alignment groove 5 is formed in a rectangular groove in cross-section.
FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing an entire configuration of contacts 10 that are used in the connector in the related art. FIG. 7 is an enlarged perspective view of a part surrounded by a two-dot chain line in FIG. 6. FIG. 8 is an enlarged perspective view reversely showing a part indicated in FIG. 7. Each of the contacts 10 is formed in a plate shape having a rectangle in cross-section, and the contacts 10 are aligned at a constant pitch in a lateral direction on the upper stage and the lower stage. The contacts 10 aligned on the upper stage and those aligned on the lower stage are oppositely oriented except for rear foot parts 16 for connecting to a circuit board at a most rear side.
Each contact 10 is formed in a rectangular shape in cross-section in a slightly smaller size than a cross-sectional size of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3. The contact 10 includes an electric contact part 15 which is inserted and aligned in the terminal-alignment groove 5 of the insulator 4 of the housing 2 at a leading end side, a press-fit fixing part 11 which is press-fitted from a rear side and fixed in the terminal-press-fitting hole 3 at a rear side of the electric contact part 15, and the rear foot part 16 at a most rear side.
A lateral width D1 of a normal-width part of the press-fit fixing part 11 is smaller than a lateral width dimension of the cross-section of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3. At a latter part (rear side) of the press-fit fixing part 11 in the longitudinal direction, a wide-width part 12 having a width D2 which is larger than the lateral width dimension of the cross-section of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3 is provided. Inclined walls 13 are provided at right and left surfaces of a transitional part between the normal-width part having the width D1 and the wide-width part 12 having the width D2 to facilitate the press-fitting of the wide-width part 12 into the terminal-press-fitting hole 3.
When the contacts 10 are attached to the housing 2, it is assumed, in each of the contacts 10, that an outer side surface which contacts an inner bottom surface 5b of the terminal-alignment groove 5 is a lower surface 10b, an outer side surface which is opposite to the lower surface 10b is an upper surface 10a, and right and left outer side surfaces are right and left side surfaces 10c, and it is assumed that an inner wall of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3 that faces the upper surface 10a of the contact is an upper wall 3a, and an inner wall of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3, opposite to the upper wall 3a, which faces the lower surface 10b of the contact 10 is an lower wall 3b. In this case, the upper wall 3a and the lower wall 3b of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3 exist in a vertical direction orthogonal to the lateral direction in which the contacts 10 are aligned.
Here, although only the relation between the contacts 10 on the upper stage and the terminal-press-fitting holes 3 on the upper stage is described, the relation between the contacts 10 and the terminal-press-fitting holes 3 on the lower stage is that only the up/down orientation is reversed with respect to the case of the upper stage, and the designation names of the upper surface 10a, the lower surface 10b, the upper wall 3a and the lower wall 3b are the same as those in the upper stage.
FIG. 9A is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which the contacts 10 are attached to the housing 2 in the related art, and FIG. 9B is an enlarged view of a main part of the state indicated in FIG. 9A.
On the upper surface 10a of the press-fit fixing part 11 of the contact 10, arch-shaped curved convex parts 20 which press-contacts the upper wall 3a of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3 are provided at two locations separate away from each other in the longitudinal direction (front-back direction) of the contact 10 by forming concave pressed parts 21 on the lower surface 10b of the contact 10. Each of the curved convex part 20 is formed along an entire range in width direction of the contact 10. Where a height from the lower wall 3b to the upper wall 3a of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3 is H3, a height H1 from the lower surface 10b to the upper surface 10a of the contact 10 is set so as to satisfy the relation of H1<H3. Further, a height H2 from the lower surface 10b to a top of the curved convex part 20 of the contact 10 is set so as to satisfy the relation of H2>H3.
Accordingly, when the press-fit fixing part 11 of the contact 10 is press-fitted in the terminal-press-fitting hole 3 from a rear side, the top of the curved convex part 20 of the contact 10 press-contacts the upper wall 3a of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3. The lower surface 10b of the contact 10 can be, therefore, closely contact with the lower wall 3b of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3 and the inner bottom surface 5b of the terminal-alignment groove 5 until the lower surface 10b of the contact 10 reaches a leading end 15a of the electric contact part 15 from the press-fit fixing part 11. In this way, it is possible to prevent the attached contact 10 from being rattling in the vertical direction.
Further, when the press-fit fixing part 11 of the contact 10 is press-fitted in the terminal-press-fitting hole 3, the wide-width part 12 of the press-fit fixing part 11 is press-contacted with the lateral side walls of the terminal-press-fitting hole 3. Accordingly, it is possible to prevent the contact 10 from being rattling in the lateral direction, i.e., in the alignment direction.